Kimberly Boone gets 35 years for trying to kill husband, setting house on fire

SANFORD – With her attorney vowing to appeal her convictions, a Winter Springs woman was handed a 35-year prison sentence today for attempting to kill her husband and setting their home on fire.

Kimberly Boone was sentenced by Circuit Judge Donna McIntosh to 15 years in prison for attempted second-degree murder and 20 years for arson, to be served consecutively. She was given credit for two years, 281 days she spent in the Seminole County Jail between the time of her arrest and today's sentencing.

McIntosh also ordered Boone to pay court costs and to serve 10 years supervised probation once she is released from prison.

Blankner told McIntosh the jury should not have heard about an incident involving her previous husband 17 years ago or that his client was desperate for money because of stealing from her employer.

That information "made the jurors dislike Kimberly Boone," he said.

Because of the pending appeal, Kimberly Boone did not speak at today's hearing.

A jury in October deliberated for four hours before convicting Boone, 46, of arson and attempted murder, deciding she drugged her husband to put him to sleep and then set their bedroom on fire Dec. 18, 2008.

Boone faced a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison — instead of 60 — because the jury found her guilty of a lesser charge of attempted second-degree murder instead of attempted first-degree murder as charged.

In 2010, a jury acquitted her of attempted murder in the shooting of her husband, who survived a chest wound. At both trials, prosecutors portrayed her as an embezzler, something they insisted explained her motive — she was desperate for $200,000 in life insurance money to repay her boss.

At the shooting trial, defense attorney Blankner told jurors the whole thing was an accident, that the house was dark and that the defendant mistook her then-husband for an intruder.

At the fire trial, he argued that Robert Boone, a former firefighter, had started the blaze.